When Race Direction is scarier than the accidents
“We have to thank, someone saved us all“. We borrow the words of Francesco Bagnaia to highlight the only thing that matters in the final balance of a nightmare Sunday in Barcelona. We do not enter the tangle of rhetoric between the materialist ‘the show must go on’ sealed by Carmelo Ezpeleta and the idealist ‘the riders must be preserved’. It is unrealistic to think that the organization will not conclude an event unless events of cyclopean proportions occur.
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The pile-ups in Barcelona, however, should not distract attention from other decisions that are nothing short of disconcerting. Disturbing scenarios have been opened as much as the frightening crashes that led to the two red flags.
During ‘Race-3’ the two Aprilia Trackhouse riders hit Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta causing both to fall. The contact between Raul Fernandez and Jorge Martin was considered a racing incident (Jorge Lorenzo disagrees and being a five-time world champion he knows a lot about motorcycles). Ai Ogura was penalized with three seconds penalty equivalent to the long lap penalty which he could not serve because the contact happened at the last corner.
In particular, the sanction to Ogura is nothing short of perplexing, because it is a precedent that is quite worrying. Bumping a rival at the last corner of the last lap equals three seconds penalty. And what if Acosta and Ogura had been fighting for the title? And what if the two had more than three seconds advantage over the rider behind them? And what if causing the rival’s zero was enough to celebrate? The ‘tap’ given to Ogura then clashes with the heavy penalties given for tire pressure, a dark matter that essentially excluded Joan Mir and other riders whose pressure was out of parameters from the final classification with hours of delay.
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‘Refereeing’ a motorcycle race is difficult, no doubt, but the triple race contact between Raul Fernandez and Jorge Martin, three seconds to Ogura and 16!!! to all those who in a 12-lap race had pressure outside the parameters are three circus numbers that make no one laugh and should make Liberty Media reflect on the credibility and transparency of its new acquisition.
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